Masters in Mechanics: Strunz & Farah Interview

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Troy Grady

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Strunz & Farah have been making beautiful music together for almost 40 years.

From their debut album Mosaico, which showcased blazing nylon-string flatpicking lines from both players, to their world music breakout successes Primal Magic and Americas, the duo has taken virtuosic harmonized hooks and wrapped them in an atmosphere of modal mystery. But it’s not just fretboard flash. Their undoubtedly fearsome feats of dual-guitar mastery are bound together by a sense of lyrical lead writing that is strong enough to linger long after their songs have finished.

And it really says something that after all this time of writing and playing at this level, they’d still be interested enough in the details of how it all works to sit down for a Cracking the Code interview. What resulted was a fascinating hour-plus investigation of their surprisingly different, yet musically complementary mechanical approaches.

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The interview package includes six analysis chapters with over an hour of in-depth technical tutorials:

Ardeshir Farah and Upward Pickslanting

Upward pickslanting is a fundamental technique for clean, high-speed alternate picking. In our analysis, we’ll step through exactly how it works, and we’ll see it in action in several of Ardeshir’s signature phrases.

Jorge Strunz and the Art of Swiping

Swiping is the art of alternate picking silently through muted strings. In chapters 5 and 6, we take a detailed look at Jorge’s uncommonly powerful use of this strategy for playing complicated lines that fly across the strings.

John McLaughlin and Upward Pickslanting

John McLaughlin’s right hand has been revered by generations of elite players. In this special breakdown of John’s upward pickslanting technique, we go frame by frame through a selection of his classic video performances.